U.S. Government regulatory agencies have considered regulations concerning the accessability of point-of-sale magnetic card reading fuel dispensing machines for the benefit of shorter or wheelchair confined individuals. Specifically, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires public facilities to be "readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities". Moreover, individual state action setting out even more stringent requirements has occurred. In California, for instance, code requires the highest operable part of two card readers, or 20% of card readers, whichever is greater shall be no more than 54" from the base of the fuel dispenser and that the fuel dispenser shall be mounted at grade.
As a result, a need has been created for a retail apparatus, such as, for instance, a fuel dispensing apparatus which can accommodate a second card reading device having an associated keypad for each operable side of the fuel dispensing apparatus. Applicant's invention meets this long-felt need with a novel second card reading device and keypad located on the exterior housing of a fuel dispensing apparatus such that they are conveniently accessible to and operated by handicapped individuals. The proposed retail apparatus can accommodate magnetic strip cards, bar coded cards, smart cards, RF transponders, and biometric identification medium (e.g., fingerprint) in order to authorize and process a retail transaction.
The second, or auxiliary, keypad described in the present invention is likely to be, but need not be, implemented using a security scheme described in co-pending application 09/020,378 filed Feb. 9, 1998 entitled "Keypad Scanning Security System", said co-pending application incorporated herein by reference.